Learning Spanish Like Crazy Level 3 / Nivel 3

Learning Spanish Like Crazy Level 3 / Nivel 3

By Russell Sabo

I’ve finally completed Learning Spanish Like Crazy Level 3 / Nivel 3! I started it in February and finished it in September. So, seven months isn’t too bad for finishing a Spanish course, at least for me. I normally listen to one lesson a week while I drive to my friend’s house, which is a half hour from mine; the perfect distance for completing a lesson. I really loved this course and, once again, I was surprised at how much more I learned.

I’m still learning from books, of course, but listening to an audio course just takes everything to a whole different level. I’ve learned so many words that I take for granted, everyday words like sweeping and mopping the floor (well, more like once-a-week words for me), going to the gym, breaking things (on purpose or by accident), and even going to a party. There’s much more, of course, but these subjects were the most memorable to me.

I didn’t repeat any lessons this time. Normally I do in order to get everything to stick in my memory better. But even without repeating any lessons I find that I can turn on the evening news on Univisión and understand 50% of what they’re saying. This is a giant step up from when I had completed Learning Spanish Like Crazy Level 2 when I was understanding about a third of everything they were saying. A small part of this improvement is due to book-learning, but listening to the audio course helped me the most for being able to understand and pick out the individual words.

My listening comprehension has also improved for being able to understand native Spanish speakers. I’ve gone from from about a 20% comprehension rate to a 33% comprehension rate (estimated – I’m not using science here). This is when I have the chance to overhear native Spanish speakers talking on their phones to their friends at lightning-fast speed. Or when I’m at the mall next to a family and they’re speaking just as quickly to each other. When native Spanish speakers are speaking directly to me, then my comprehension rate goes up to about 50%, but only because they slow down a bit and pronounce their words a bit more clearly for me.

So that’s where Learning Spanish Like Crazy Level 3 / Nivel 3 has gotten me so far. No single product anywhere is going to get you to total fluency in a language, but the Learning Spanish Like Crazy series will pick you up at the starting point and make sure that you’re well on your way to fluency by the time you finish.

In the course, you’ll learn more about the subjunctive mood (imperfect subjunctive and present perfect subjunctive), and how to say that you would have done something, but…, or that he should have done something, and how to speak in the passive voice, e.g., “The game was won by the football team,” instead of the active voice, “The football team won the game.” Below I’ve written out the course outline of everything that’s included in Learning Spanish Like Crazy Level 3 / Nivel 3.

The challenge level of this program is about the same as the first two levels. Nothing is overly difficult, and the instructors do a very good good of repeating themselves. There were times in the program where I heard something and didn’t understand it at all, but with the repetition, everything became clear. Also, sometimes it’s difficult to understand what a male instructor is saying, but then a female instructor will say the same thing and I’ll understand. In short, everything you hear in this course will have the opportunity to stick in your memory. You’re NOT going to finish the course angry because of mumbling instructors and words you never had the opportunity to learn.

There were parts of this course that I thought would be a little boring because I had learned them in my books, but that wasn’t the case. Some parts of speech are just naturally easy to learn, of course. Learning Spanish Like Crazy seems to take this into account and turns a part of speech like the Conditional Perfect tense into a challenge by creating longer sentences that your brain has to try to wrap itself around, not to mention trying to say it out loud. I stumbled a lot at the beginning of a lesson, but by the end, I was feeling more comfortable with all the challenges that that particular lesson had given me.

There are bonuses included when you purchase this product. I haven’t taken the opportunity to go through all of them yet, but I am currently listening to the original 15 lessons that were released before Patrick (the co-founder of Learning Spanish Like Crazy) decided to create a better product that his customers were asking for. These 15 lessons will take you through other parts of speech that aren’t included in the three Learning Spanish Like Crazy main programs. In these lessons, the difficulty level goes up as the instructors speak faster and the time given for repeating the words and phrases shrinks. I’ve been getting an awesome mental workout from the first few lessons that deal with the Future Perfect tense, and I’m looking forward to finishing, and repeating these lessons. Below, I’ve also written out the outline of the bonus lessons underneath the main course outline.

The bottom line? Buy it! If you’ve gone through Learning Spanish Like Crazy Level 2 / Nivel 2 and you have a good comprehension of all the material, then the material in Learning Spanish Like Crazy Level 3 / Nivel 3 is going to keep you on track with your learning goals. If you haven’t gone through the Learning Spanish Like Crazy series and you consider yourself an intermediate (or almost intermediate) learner, then the material in Learning Spanish Like Crazy Level 3 / Nivel 3 will present to you a decent challenge. In every language course you’re going to learn something new, but Learning Spanish Like Crazy Level 3 / Nivel 3 will propel you to a whole new level and get you ready to head out into the Spanish-speaking world with a comprehensive language toolset.